Affiliations Ion Founded 1992 | Owner SMC Communications Last air date July 2007 | |
Channels Analog: 27 (UHF)
Digital: none Translators W14CK 14 (UHF, Newport, Vermont) | ||
WWBI-LP (channel 27) was a low-power television station in Plattsburgh, New York. The station was owned and operated by SMC Communications.
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The station was licensed as Class A, even though the calls list it as an "-LP"; this was the case with many other stations licensed prior to 1999, when the FCC began to assign the "-CA" suffix for Low Power-Class A licenses.
The station was translated on W14CK Newport, Vermont, which transmitted at 11.6 kW from Jay Peak, which was added in 1997. Like the parent station, W14CK, despite being a translator and being assigned a translator call sign, was licensed as a class A station. WWBI was seen on Comcast Burlington digital channel 142 and Charter Plattsburgh channel 10.
Since July 2007, WWBI's signal had been off the air. Its license expired on June 1, 2007 and was not renewed. W14CK's license remained active (as that station did file for license renewal); however, it was downgraded from class A status and reverted to the standard low-power repeater class on October 24, 2012 due to failure to file E/I children's television reports. On June 12, 2015, W14CK's license was cancelled by the FCC for failure to file a license renewal application.
History
WWBI signed on in 1992 with an independent format. The station originally had plans to become the Fox affiliate for Burlington, Vermont and Montreal, but negotiations failed and the station adopted the UPN affiliation in the mid-1990s. However, affiliation changes in 1999 meant that the station lost UPN to WBVT, and the station initially went independent before switching to Ion (then known as Pax).
The station was sold to Word of God Fellowship, Inc., parent company of the Daystar Television Network, in the fall of 2005, and began running Daystar programming as an LMA by the end of the year. There was originally word that the station would run Daystar programming part-time while keeping some programming from i (which Pax had become in July 2005) as part of the schedule, however, by at least as of January 2006, it changed over to full-time Daystar (religious) programming. Following this WWBI was replaced by the i satellite feed on local cable systems, who were never obligated to carry WWBI in the first place since it is a low power station.
In October 2006, however, WWBI's sale to Daystar had fallen through; as a result, the station once again returned to programming from the i network (which became Ion in January 2007) and returned to local cable systems by mid November 2006.
On June 6, 2006, WWBI's former studio, the Hotel Holland in Rouses Point, New York, was destroyed in a fire. The Hotel Holland was used for WWBI's studios back in the days when they were an independent station and UPN affiliate, and, when the fire occurred, was used as storage for broadcasting equipment after relocating their studios.
As of March 29, 2011, WWBI's license has been cancelled and call sign has been deleted by the Federal Communications Commission. The license for W14CK remains active, though it was not known if it was broadcasting, either another station or its own programming.
WWBI's cable slots have been replaced with the national Ion feed.
Viewership in Quebec
On the Vidéotron cable system in Montreal, WWBI was "seen" on its Illico digital service between January 2004 and July 2005, but, citing "technical difficulties", was the national Pax satellite feed instead. These problems were never corrected, and WWBI was withdrawn from the service by orders from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
Usually, the main WWBI signal only reached the international border, though many in the Montreal area have managed to pull the signal in, with varying results. (Its W14CK translator extended into Quebec's Estrie region, although this is mainly farmland and backcountry.)